Season 5: Chapter 178. Strategy Meeting (2)

The Group A match had ended in Paprika's overwhelming victory, which led to the Cheese Shelter’s creation. It seemed like some people were overreacting, but they couldn't help it.

At the time, Streamer Garden's trending posts were entirely plastered with Paprika content. Anything associated with Paprika streamers, no matter how trivial, reached trending. Every small-time Paprika streamer was being mentioned, and things had gotten so bad that a post climbed near the top ten.

[#12. You’re all using the community knowing it's Kim Hojun's birthday today?]

==== ====

Kim Hojun? Who's that?

Me.

Paprika superfan, 28th descendant of the frugal Kim clan, Kim Hojun.

It's the birthday of none other than the Great Paprika's beloved viewer, so let's start with trending.

==== ====

It wasn’t just any Paprika streamer, but even a Paprika viewer's birthday started trending. This was deeply humiliating because not a single one of Cheese's most famous streamers was trending.

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooo insane

— Oh that's very important, way more important than any Cheese streamer's birthday

— The frugal Kim clan lmaooooooo

— Kim Hojun could probably beat all of Cheese's combined LIL skill fr

— Hojun you better watch yourself

— Frugal for generations?? Kim Hojun LOL

— What are you waiting for? Post it.

The Group A match had been bad enough to lead to this kind of humiliation. Cheese was even rated lower than when Treevy lost completely to Paprika.

[#7. Honestly need to be at least Treevy level to even fight lmaooo]

==== ====

And half of them who even split to Cheese dares to act up lmaooo

==== ====

— lmaooo fr

— Right

— True lmaooo

— The people from Treevy mostly came to Paprika so Cheese has nothing left now lmaooo

— Genuinely disgusting people with platform loyalty

└ while using Streamer Garden...

└ while watching the Platform Showdown...

└└ No there's a limit lmaooo

└└ This IS the limit? This bothers you? Isn't it weird that you're bothered?

└└ You all better beat Kim Hojun 28th descendant of the frugal Kim clan first

└└ lmaooooooooooooooooo

— Paprika loyalists venom sac is insane, how long have they been holding that

Paprika's viewers had accumulated venom to the brim. The fact that Paprika had been used without properly doing anything in Cheese Village had caused their viewers tremendous displeasure.

True to people with pent-up rage, they'd kept their anger all this time and seemed to be trying to thoroughly establish the hierarchy with this opportunity. Of course, viewers establishing this hierarchy rather than streamers didn't actually do anything. This could just be understood as a way of enjoying sports very immersively.

They were like English gentlemen who smashed up entire neighborhoods when their football team lost. Anyway, people like this were necessary for the sports world to be entertaining. Why? Because the atmosphere completely flipped with wins and losses.

[The Great Hwang]

[Crushed Group B huh? lmaooo]

[Annihilate those Paprika loyalists]

Group B had been Cheese's overwhelming victory. Everyone who'd retreated to the Cheese Shelter all returned to Streamer Garden's main area. The trending posts began to shift. The swing voters who'd been tossed around by wins and losses all turned to Cheese's side, beginning the trending post purge.

[#1. Upvote if you now understand why large corporations use dispatched champions lmaooo]

The center of that purge was naturally the dispatch worker system because this was Cheese's true hope and a strategy that posed an impenetrable wall for Paprika.

==== ====

Just extracting all the sweet juice, not giving a single point of experience, then eating them as a packed lunch at the end and throwing them away, insane efficiency.

==== ====

— lmaooooooooo fr

— Genuinely shocking efficiency fr

— To think such a good system existed in this world;

— lmaooooooooo

— Wow... I'm also on a contract but even if I were the boss, I'd use that lmaooo

└ lmaooo fr

— Why are you writing about grad students here?

└ Wow

└ I see

When dispatch workers came up, naturally, the person who created the strategy would also be widely discussed.

[#2. Still, he was the type who got 4-tank insurance...]

==== ====

That's the SmartGrown-Up.

What? Isn't that the same guy who made the dispatch worker thing?

No, no, the atrocious institution of today's dispatch workers was created by the 3rd generation Dumb Young Man.

His predecessor, the SmartGrown-Up, had inherited the will of the 1st generation Almond the Lazy Soldier and even small-timers like these got 4-tank insurance.

(video)

Watch this.

Meanwhile, the 3rd generation Dumb Young Man appears to have inherited none of his predecessors' character at all.

==== ====

— Is this a different person??

— This is why chaebol third generation is no good smh

— 4-tank insurance is insane lmaooo the boss got his OWN insurance! And the employees became the 4 tanks lmaooo

— Looking at this post the character seems to have been passed down perfectly

└ lmaooooooooo

└ fr

└ Same thing lmaooo

— Wealth doesn't last three generations...

— The 4 tanks in 4-tank insurance are Can't Can't Can't, right?

— Don't know where to even begin refuting this

└ Astral projection, causal distortion, slander, this post is the aggregate of all these agitation techniques

— lmaooooo

Even Almond's old 4-tank strategy resurfaced in trending. Even the completely uninvolved Ah-Sung Chairman got dragged in.

[#3. Ah-Sung Chairman: “People are the most important resource” lmaooooo]

==== ====

(video)

An actual video exists

This is why people need to work at a major corporation.

You roll around and somehow learn things.

==== ====

It was an actual video of the young chairman giving a speech to employees. He was passionately declaring that people were the most important resource.

— lmaooooooooooo

— Such a coincidence LOL

— Genuinely hilarious

— lmaooooooooooo

— He spent five years sharpening a blade at that company... that ruthless man...

└ That is genuinely hilarious lmaooo

└ lmaooooooooooo

└ He just does that naturally...

Quietly, posts hoping for the SmartGrown-Up's revival also appeared.

[#4. The fraud of the century]

==== ====

Dumb Young Man

This guy is actually crazy smart

==== ====

— lmaooooooooooo

— lmaooooo fr

— Can’t disagree...

— There was this thing called SmartGrown-Up. He wasn't smart though

└ lmaooooo

└ right he was a bit...

— Didn't you know? Dumb is several times smarter than Clever

└ Clever has negative intelligence so multiply it and it gets more negative

└ What

└ lmaooooo

└ Can intelligence even be negative

— Wow he was openly running a con... this Nut Boy...

Meanwhile, one person found this whole chain of events quite burdensome. That was, surprisingly, Almond himself.

***

“Phew.” Almond sighed in relief.

'Almost got caught.'

EggPlant had suddenly struck an unguarded spot.

'To think he'd send that kind of video. EggPlant...'

EggPlant had exposed that Almond had been repeating what Sa-Rang said word for word, but EggPlant had already betrayed Cheese. Handling him hadn't been hard because viewers were fully immersed in faction logic and saw EggPlant as someone to be put down.

— EggPlant must be so mad about losing~ lmaooo

— lmaooo EggPlant leaving was hilarious

— LOL

— Mentioning viewers gets you banned... oh wait? That person isn't a viewer, is he? lmaooo

Fortunately, the truth EggPlant had brought was forgotten. Instead, they attacked him. With that, high evaluations of Almond's strategic intelligence began spreading in Streamer Garden and communities.

This flow had already left his hands.

"Bro, I'm putting my trust entirely in you," SweetPotato said to Almond in the waiting channel.

"Oppa, now you're genuinely on another level, aren't you? Wow~!"

Even the Challenger Black Tea now trusted Almond. She'd trusted him before, but now in a slightly different way. Astonishingly, she trusted his brain.

"Now he's smart too, L-Lord~!" Lemon trusted him, of course.

Almond gazed toward the last bastion.

Sweet Radish just smiled contentedly and gave a thumbs-up. He looked like someone gratefully relieved that their burden had been lightened.

Almond wanted to say something to clarify, but the topic had already moved on.

"Oh. First, everyone. Our team is starting in very good spirits. Let's give a hand," Sweet Radish said to his teammates and clapped.

"Yeah~!"

Clap clap clap.

"And to our great strategist Almond!"

"YEAAAAAAAAA!!"

Even bigger applause poured out.

'Is, is that so?'

Almond was too confused to react at all.

Sweet Radish got to the main point. "Our coach is in a meeting with the Group A coaches, so it seems we'll have to do feedback among ourselves for now."

Since the Knights had ended up as the overall scrimmage champions, Sa-Rang had become Cheese's lead coach. As the person responsible for both Group A and Group B, she was also supervising Group A, who would play next.

"Coach has left the feedback to me. Let's go through it."

Sweet Radish pointed out a few dangerous moments. There were several from start to finish, but one was most worth debating.

"Here, ForeverAlone and Zelo both died simultaneously. We momentarily lost both walkie-talkies."

In the final team fight against Paprika, the Knights had lost both ForeverAlone and Zelo in the Turtle contest.

"First, a situation where we lose both walkie-talkies like this should not have occurred."

Almond remembered that fight. He'd sent Zelo out and told Sweet Radish to send ForeverAlone out too.

"So, why did we make this choice?"

Almond looked back at what he'd been thinking at the time.

'Because they're dispatch workers.'

It just seemed natural that dispatch workers died first, so he'd sent them out like that.

"This is because Almond hyung saw a perfect kill window." Sweet Radish suddenly started interpreting for Almond. "Even if we lose all the walkie-talkies here! If we just steal this Turtle, we win! That was the read."

The Turtle was important, and the dispatch workers died first. These two thoughts, at least, had been in Almond's head.

"He knew exactly what to sacrifice and what to gain! The Lord knows all!"

"Yeah~!"

"L-Lord~!"

At Sweet Radish's commentary, Almond went mute.

"However? A demigod Almond can manage this, but we ordinary mortals could end up in big trouble making judgments this way. For ordinary mortals, the better method is..."

— Demigod LOL

— lmaooooooooooooo

— lmaooooooo

— Sweet Radish changed his strategy hahaha

— Insane

— Is this a cult?

— This guy is insane

— Demigod Almond loool

Through the continuing praise and adulation, Almond simply kept his mouth quietly shut. If he said anything and a question came in, things could get awkward.

'I'll just listen.'

Almond chose to open his ears instead and only listen. If he learned the actual strategy here, he'd be able to proudly answer if someone asked later, right? Almond, with ears perked up, listened intently with full concentration.

Looking at Almond, Sweet Radish thought.

'Easy. So easy.'

Like this, Sweet Radish's skill was growing in a different area.

'Now, it finally feels like a team.'

A smile flickered across Sweet Radish's eyes. Naturally, nobody noticed, not even Almond with his exceptional dynamic vision.